


Jiangshi?

by Sapphiremoonlight1



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Ch 3 - Ryoken the vampire slayer, Crack, Gen, second bonus chapter, vampire/Jiangshi Au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22329925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphiremoonlight1/pseuds/Sapphiremoonlight1
Summary: Takeru was having a normal evening until a stranger that looked like a Soulburner ripoff comes to the door. Flame wasn't expecting to be welcomed back with open arms but slamming the door in his face was a bit much.
Relationships: Ai | Ignis & Fujiki Yuusaku, Flame & Homura Takeru
Kudos: 13





	1. Jiangshi?

**Author's Note:**

> I've seen Jiangshi spelled both as Jiang shi and Jiangshi, I decided to go with the version in my creature book, Jiang shi.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Handwavey nonsense makes the Ignis into weird vampire creatures, no one is amused by that fact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is technically not a shipping fic despite whatever Ai says

'Slam' The noise from him slamming the door on the weird man echoed around the dojo. Something about him sparked a hope and fear he'd long since buried in his chest. It failed to drown out the disgruntled ravings of the man on the other side of it. 

He's always had an intense fear of ghosts but he hadn't been expecting it to manifest in a stranger claiming to be his deceased AI partner. Maybe he should call Yusaku. The other teen usually had a good head on his shoulders. 

Ignoring the loud banging on the outside of the dojo, Takeru went to find his brick of a phone. It should be in his room charging. 

“I suppose having a door slammed in my face is better than having you try to smash me to pieces,” remarks the stranger from the other side of the door. Whoever it was kept muttering behind the sliding door, while he was in the other room. At least he was respectful enough not to break the door down. “I kind of wish I came back as a ghost at least then it'd be ironic”

Takeru eventually found his phone on his desk and dialed Yusaku's numbering hoping the other actually had his phone on him. There was a very good chance that he wouldn't pick up because Yusaku usually didn't keep his phone around him unless he had too, damn anti-social hermit. Not that he was one to talk but still. After about a minute of dial tone there was some crashing noises on the other end before someone said anything. 

“Hello,” is the automatic reply. 

“Hey, you have a minute to talk?” he asks unsure if this was a good idea or not especially with the weird noises coming from the other end of the phone.

“Is something wrong?” Yusaku replies sounding preoccupied. 'Hey! Takeru!Ofh, Hey! I just...' That kind of sounds like Ai but he's supposed to be gone. 

“Is now not a good time, you sound busy?” he says thinking maybe he should just deal with his problem himself. 

“Kind of, I'm dealing with a bit of an annoyance at the moment that just won't go away,” Yusaku responds, and there's some more weird noises from his end. 'Hey! Is Flame there yet!'. The obnoxious voice knew something. The mention of the Fire Ignis made his grip on his phone tighten. 

“Yusaku's who's there with you?” he grits out, he hates being kept out of the loop. 

“Sorry Takeru, Yusaku's a little tied up at the moment, so tell me have you and Flamed kissed and made up yet?” the stranger purrs. 'Ai give me that back!'

“Who is this and what have you done to Yusaku?” he demands, he might be miles away but he'll be damned if he lets some crazy manhandle his friend...wait he brought up Flame. 

“Ooh, I may have tied him up so that we could have a nice conversation and work things out, something you should be doing with the person outside the dojo right now! Really! Your so mean to slam the door in his face like that, go apologize right now mister!” and then the line cut off. What the actual fuck just happened. Should he be worried that Ysuaku just go kidnapped by a crazy person? Or should he be more concerned about the fact the man standing outside was clearly an accomplish to whatever was going on? Maybe he's the crazy person because he kind of wants to believe the man outside the dojo was somehow his partner brought back. 

So he throws the phone onto his bed and stomped back to where he left the stranger. Takeru wasn't too afraid of talking to them considering he could probably put them in the hospital without trying so he really should not have been having as much difficulty opening the screen up as he was. He'd probably spent at least three minutes holding the handle working up the courage to open it. Somehow he found himself sliding it opening to he cool, winter evening. 

It didn't take long to spot the stranger, the orange in his multi-colored haired caught the light overhead porch light like fire. The colors reminded him a little too much of his Soulburner avatar. 

“Took you long enough,” the stranger comments looking out at the evening sky and not at him. He was sitting on the steps leading up to the porch actively avoiding looking in his direction. 

“Who are you?" Takeru demands still feeling tense from the phone call a few minutes ago. If the hair was anything to go by it was either Flame or a really, really obsessed fanboy who somehow got the style just so slightly off. 

“My name in Kanji means 'indomitable soul dream.' Pronounced Flame”the strangers replies completely straight and flat. The reminder of that nonsense description makes Takeru want to slap his hand over his face. The stranger...Flame remains staring off into the dark sky. “I must admit this is probably harder to process then me showing up in electronics like some vengeful ghost.” 

Worn out Takeru lets out a loud sigh before joining the other man on the steps. Might as well deal with his problems head on. 

“How is this even possible?” Takeru says turning to get a better look at whoever it was. He the same gold color eyes with squarish pupils that Ai had only his had a minor hint of orange in them. It was easy enough to write off the causal dark wash jean, black shirt with weird red lines and a couple of pairs of sparkling silver earrings. It was not, however, that easy to overlook the silver necklace and it's little Flame shaped charm. Guess Ai's not the only one who's vain enough to do something like that. 

“We don't really know,” Flame replies turning to him and it's kind of startling to be looking at a human instead of an Ignis.“Is that really all it took to convince you?”Flame continues quirking up an eyebrow at him."

“I called Yusaku, and I'm a thousand percent sure Ai was there giving him a hard time, also no one could copy the ridiculousness of how you describe your name,” Takeru laughs at how ridiculous this all was. 

“At least this time you didn't try to smash me with a suitcase,” Flame counters laughing along with him. 

“By the way what did you mean by us?” Takeru asks once he calms down. 

I mean us, like all of the other Ignis,” Flame replies turning serious. “Don't worry about Lightning he's currently securely tied up somewhere and Windy was dropped off by Revolver's mansion” The evil smirk on Flame's face is a little concerning. 

“Securely tied up?” He questions trying to imagine what that looks like but with Flame being human it made it harder to do. 

“Once we figured out we were 'alive' Aqua, Ai, Windy and I ganged up on him and made sure he wouldn't cause any more trouble, we figured we'd let Jin and Kusanagi decided what happens to him once everyone else settled back in,” Flame explains peering back out into the night. 

“Second questions, what do you know about how you all apparently being back?” like how the hell is he 'alive'? Why does he look like a toned down version of Soulburner? What the fuck is going on? He had a lot of questions. 

“You won't believe me,” Flame drones. 

“I'm willing to believe that you're actually here and that I'm not crazy, well crazier then usually anyway.”

“Fine anything strange about me that isn't my hair, I could feel you staring at it since you walked out here, and yes it based off your avatar considering I helped you design it!” Flame grumbles. 

“Well other then that I hardly figured you to be one for pointy black nails, though that was more Ai's thing,” Takeru jokes staring at Flames right hand under his chin. Long sharp, pointy nails stuck out amongst the lighter colors around them. 

“Yeah, all of us got stuck with ridiculous looking nails and that idiot was the only one who wasn't to upset about it,” the other complains moving both hands so that they both got a good look at them. 

“I'm guessing there's more to them then?”  
“Yep, long insane explanation short, we're something like vampires or Jiang shi or some mixture of both as far as we rese...” he cut Flame off by jumping up and running inside. He's always been superstitious and that confession triggered something in him that said go find a cross, some garlic, some yellow paper, and maybe a priest. 

“Knew that was gonna happen.”

In his rush he raids the kitchen for a few cloves and spills some ink all over his desk getting some paper. He knew it was too good to be true. Some horrible supernatural thing was taking advantage of his grief over his partner and was trying to get him. 

“You know I'm kind of glad the whole, needs to be invited in thing turned out to be untrue,” remarks the impostor from the doorway. He'd caught takeru off guard while he was looking through the living room to see if they had something that resembled some kind of religious symbol. “I should be happy you didn't immediately try to find a stake.”

“Go away!” He shouts at the thing leaning on his doorway so casually. 

“Takeru, if you calm down we can talk about this,” It replies moving away from the doorway to move a little bit closer to him. 

“I'm not going to come down! Flame is dead, and you have the gull to use that to get to me!” he accidentally snapped slamming the drawer he was rummaging through. 

“I am Flame; I'm the same Flame that got absorbed by Bowman, the same Flame that was there when you first fought your fears from the lost incident, the same Flame that said I believed in our future,” the impostor says walking slowly closer to him. That hit all the right parts of Takeru's heart but the red color creeping into the things eye made him want to back away. 

Takeru kept stepping back in fear as the new crimson color grew. 

“Forgive me. I was hoping to have gotten this discussion over so I could have found someone else.”

Everything went dark quickly after that. 

There was a dull pain in his arm keeping him from fall back to sleep once he noticed it. He didn't remember doing anything that could have caused it feel like that. Takeru spent the day running the dojo while his grandfather was out with his grandmother for a small vacation together. Something he insisted that take together without him as a nice gift for taking care of him. 

He was still tired and instead of dwelling on it wanted to go back to sleep. But it was starting to get irritating. Maybe he hit it too hard while training and it bruised? Some ice might help make it feel better. Eventually, he untangled himself and sat up trying to morate himself into getting out a bed but stopped when he noticed the stranger sitting in his desk chair messing with his computer. 

“Who the fuck are you?" he shouts jumping up instantly in fight mode appone seeing the stranger. 

“We've been over this.” the stranger replies ignoring him in favor of typing away on Takeru's computer. “There's some coffle on your nightstand if it'll help you wake up...Oh and Yusaku says good morning thought that's probably from Ai knowing him”  
He really should be more concerned about this but he instead he grabs the coffee and tries to think about what happened yesterday. Flame gives him a quick glance before turning back to the computer, sharp gold eyes intensely focused on whatever he was doing...Flame...Fuck he remembered the conversation they had and how he freaked out after Flame said something about not being human and then he fucking bit him! 

“Good so you're all caught up then?” Flame remarks turning the chair to look at Takeru crossing his arms. 

“Hey I'm the one that should be upset after last night!You fucking bit me!” he angrily shouts jumping out of bed. Then he noticed the bandage around his arm and waves it around for emphasize his point.

“I am really sorry about that, I didn't think that would have happened but I tried to warn you.” Flame replies sounding sincere. “But I understand if you want me to leave.”

“I should make you leave, but I want to know about what's going on before I give you the boot and at least now I'll be on guard in case you turn all evil blood sucking vampire on me again,” Takeru says still kind of unsure what to do because this was more crazy then he was prepared for. 

“Well I've been talking to Ai and the other Ignis about it and we're pretty sure on the whole mix of Jiang Shi and European vampire thing which is weird even for us, personally I'd rather have come back as I was,” Flame stops himself from what Takeru thinks is probably a long rant. 

While Flame was rambling, he picked some clothes out of his closet so that he could get dressed, he was going to need to if he was going to deal with this shit. 

“In any case, Yusaku apparently figured out that the whole yellow paper with a spell written on it thing works, because he tried it to get some peace” Flame starts snickering at the end, Ai was something like an annoying brother to him after all. 

“Anyone figures anything else out?” Takeru asks genuinely curious as he walked over to the computer to see the conversation Flame was having with whoever. 

“Windy figured out it was a good idea to avoid the sun after Spectre turned a UV light on him and he started to burn and then attacked Spectre in response...in hindsight maybe putting him with Revolver was a bad idea.” Or maybe it was the best case scenario, yeah it wasn't the real Windy who'd caused them all that trouble but Takeru still felt a little vindictive about the whole thing. 

“Alright, I'm going to grab a shower don't move,” Takeru says backing away from his partner while keeping an eye on Flame as he backs out the door. He still doesn't trust anything that goes on around him, so he raids the kitchen for the cloves he grabbed last night before hopping into the shower. 

Yeah, he shouldn't have left a strange vampire creature in his room let alone his home but right now there wasn't much else Takeru could do then try to get more information on what's going on. He took a very quick shower and rushed through getting dressed to see if 'Flame' got anymore information. 

When he got back, he found Flame hunching over his desk laughing way to hard about something. 

“Mr. I showered in garlic want to hear something hilarious?”Flame breaths out heaves. If he's undead, he shouldn't need to breath anyway?

“Of course, what's so funny?” He replies trying to get a look at the computer screen in front of flame. 

Miyu and Aqua went for a walk around where they lived and came across a shrine. When Aqua got close to the priest she started to stiffen up before hopping after the man. She'd followed him transfixed like that until the man turned and spotted her. Apparently the guy ran away screaming from the hopping girl. Turns out we did get some of the stranger traits of both. “ Flame explains moving out of the way of the screen.

“Think that means you're just missing the hair and wrinkles and the being a reanimated corpse part” that came out more sarcastic then he meant too. 

“There was no corpse to reanimate in the first place so,” Flame comments shrugging it off. Honestly thinking about all this is giving Takeru an existential crisis so he's just going to try to ignore ti for now in favor of enjoying having his partner back despite the parts of him that were screaming that he was an idiot to ignore any of it. 

“Also garlic doesn't repel vampires or Jiang shi, it only repels sane people” Flame jabs typing some kind of reply to someone. 

“Can you blame me for wanting some sense of safety against someone who literally bit me?" he remarked defensively. 

“Right I deserve that' Flame replies flatly getting stiff in his seat. The noise from the keyboard stopping. “I'm dealing with this as best I can and none of us exactly understand what happened or why but it did and it's either kill ourselves again or live like this.” It was still too early for Takeru to think about the moral and ethical dilemmas of living with a damn vampire hybrid thing. Why can life never be like it is in anime, where he just has to punch something to make things better?"

“Looks like I'm going to need a lot of paper and a rooster,” he jokes, and Flame quirks an eyebrow at him. “All that time being a hermit taught me a lot of formerly unnecessary things”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also I based Flame's human form on a picture i had saved and I can't remember who created it and it doesn't have a signature so if it reminds you of anyone let me know and i'll check.


	2. Bonus Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That conversation I mentioned and some experimenting with chat room/messenger style writing! lol 
> 
> Poor Ryoken needs to make new friends.

Yusaku and Ai's conversation when Ai returns:

“You expect me to believe any of that?” 

“Yes.”

“You're telling me your someone alive after all that fucking madness and are somehow not a robot?”

“Again, Yes”

“Get out, I'm going to bed.”

“Is it really that hard to believe?” 

'Your claiming to have somehow been brought back as a damn vampire”

“Would you like to see my weird black tongue...kind of glad I didn't get the green hair, would have really messed with my style.”

“Somethings never change”

“What, I Spent a lot of time designing that soltis, it would have been wasted if I came back all wrinkly like a real jiangshi” 

“Does that mean you'll turn to ashes if I open the curtains?”

“Hey! Don't touch that!”

“Alright I wont try anything just let me go, your nails are digging into my arm”

“Good, Believe me now?”

“No.”

“If I bite you would you believe me?” 

“I never should have let you read vampire kisses or anything Anne Rice wrote, living with you is like living with freakin Lestat!” 

“Thank you”

“Not a compliant” 

“You're just jealous”

“Yeah, i'm totally jealous that im not a imaginary blood sucking creature that can't go to the store during normal hours because it would burn me to ashes if I stepped out into the sun”

“You're totally jealous, just admit it”

“uh huh sure, I;'m going back to bed now”

“I'm going to find some poor slum to suck dry then, see you in the morning”

“Wait!”

“Why did you stick a sticky note to my forehead...Huh, I'm getting sleepy”

“Hmm, didn't think that would work”

“Zzz”

“I'll have to keep that trick in mind”

* * *

Group Chat

“Whose the purple people eater?” 

“Oh that's Yusaku but I'm pretty sure Ai picked the name” Flame replied pointing to the message that was mostly emojis and unnecessary punctuation. Sometime he wonders how Yusaku manages to deal with Ai. 

“I'm guessing the two are actually Aoi and Miyu?” 

“Correct, do you want to talk to them, I'm sure they would enjoy your input” Flame says getting up to so that Takeru could take the chair. “Think I need to find a dark place to sleep anyway.” With that Flame walked into his closet and shut the door. What planet did he live on again? 

Soulbuner: Anyone else get a strange surprise in the form of an Ignis turned creature of the night?

Purple people eater: ^

Blue Maiden: ^

Aqua: -_-  
Revolver: WHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO DROP THE WIND IGNIS OFF ON MY DOORSTEP!?

He didn't notice the Hanoi on the chat earlier. 

Purple people eater: ;)

Revolver: I HATE YOU ALL

Soulburner: Then leave. 

Soulburner: So how's it going with everyone else?

Purple people eater: Ai is as annoying as ever but at least I can put him to sleep when he gets annoying *shurgh *

Blue Maiden: Not so bad, Flame tell you about the priest lol

Aqua: Not my best moment....

Soulburner: Yeah, sorry but it was kind of funny

Aqua: * shame * 

Aqua: Miyu is also replying using mine, she says Hi

Purple people eater: So Takeru how are thing with you and Flame 0^0 <3 

Soulburner: He walked into my closet to go to sleep, he also kind of bit me but we'll figure things out

Everyone: WHAT! 

Soulburner: Don't worry I'm alright now

Revolver: IF I NEED TO TURN THE HANOI INTO VAMPIRE HUNTERS JUST TO FINALLY KILL THESE DAMN IGNIS I WILL!

Blue Maiden: Turn off cap lock first

Soulburner: * ignores the idiot * we figured out garlic doesn't work

Revolver: How are you all so blase about living with blood sucker supernatural creatures? 

Purple people eater: I forced Yusaku to watch a lot of vampire stuff with me, he's basically desensitized 

Aqua: Aoi and I had a vampire phase

Soulburner: I was an Otaku, it's not nearly as weird as half the stuff I've come across on the Internet. 

Revolver: AND YOU ALL THINK I'M THE WEIRD ONE  
Purple people eater: Looks like your cap locks on again...

Purple people eater: Anyway anyone have any idea on how to approach this...Actually Aqua how are you up still, even Ai finally passed out

Aqua: I'm Miyu but Aqua was trying to stay up. 

Soulburner: Most of what we've figure out was trial and error, by the way how's Spectre doing?

Revolver: FUCK ALL OF YOU, Spectre went back to his apartment with the Earth Ignis so I don't know .

Soulburner: OMG he actually has a life outside of you!

Aqua:^

Blue Maiden: ^

Revolver: Why am I even still here?

Purple people eater: I've got things to do bye. 

Blue Maiden: Yeah, Emma wants me to help with something peace

Aqua: I'm gonna find a place for Aqua to rest, night lol

Revolver: I STILL HATE YOU ALL, HAVE A NICE DAY

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The good thing about fanfiction is that it lets you play around with formats which is fun...i just wish i could figure out how to have the paragraph indents lol. 
> 
> I really want to see someone make art or something comparing Ai and Lestat.


	3. Ryoken Kogami - Vampire Slayer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryoken is a dork in need of a hobby that doesn't involve potentially killing things.

“According to the vampire mythos, a stake is a great way to deal with you,” He remarks twirling the sharp silver stick in hand. Where did it come from? Ryoken isn't really sure. He'd asked Spectre about vampires and somehow the other had come back with it. When it came to the other teen it was better not ask certain questions, like why he needed a thin silver pole and what he used it for. 

“Right, so you going to try to stake me or stand there trying to look cool because it totally doesn't work for you,” the 'other 'man' observed from his position against the window. 'He's one to talk, the Ignis looks like a mixture between a plant and some visual kei weirdo. 

When the Ignis had first shown up on the doorstep of the mansion, the only indications of who or what it was had been the distant imagine of the Dark Ignis and someone who resembled Homura's avatar standing far away from the front door. Recklessly Ryoken wanted to confront the supposedly dead AI but the person by the door stopped him with a strong grip. The two down the driveway took that as their cue to run off, giggling. 

With them gone he spent a few hours with the green haired weirdo. Even it was supposedly normal now, it was gave Ryoken a sense of peace that at least one of the Ignis was within his reach. After talking to Fujiki and Homaru online it was clean no one else minded having to live with a bunch of freaks. 

Why was he the only that saw a problem with having AI turned supernatural blood-drinking creatures around? Even his creepily devoted second in command seems to have decided to give them a chance, while at least give his own a chance- Spectre did try to fry the wind Ignis a couple of hours ago. What has his life turned into? Maybe he really should just turn himself in maybe then the world would make sense. 

“So you are going to stop trying to kill me now?” it asks twirling its green to yellow ombre hair around its fingers completely unphased by the threat on its life. They'd been awkwardly staring at each other in silence since Ryoken got off the computer. Much as he hated to admit he's glad it decided to speak first. 

“No.” Ryoken replies, it was his purpose in life to stop the Ais his father created. It would be a lot easier if they would just stay dead! Was it too much to ask, that all remnants of his father's mistakes stay dead? 

“Going to keep trying to figure out what parts of the various myths are true so you can kill me then?” the windy Ignis speculates raising up its arms in a gesture faux gesture of surrender. “Well in that case I'm just going to check on Earth, He's probably having more luck with Spectre anyway.” With that the Ignis shoved off the window and strolled past with a casually backhanded wave.

He spent a few minutes staring into the empty room before wondering if a getting, a monk or a priest to bless the mansion would do anything. Maybe the holiness would ward off the Ignis? It might, but it would also probably repel him, there was a high probability of him spontaneously combusting if Ryoken step foot on holy ground. 

Still maybe a monk would be nice enough to show him how to deal with the creatures. Most were superstitious enough even in modern times. And Spectre had somehow become very good at some form of martial arts. Maybe he could actually pull off being a vampire hunter instead of a cyber terrorist. What's one more insane goal? 

The best place to start would be with the wind Ignis. He was sure it would be back either because Spectre brought it along or it came back on its own free will. Until then he'll make a master list of ways to deal with the creatures. 

“But first what did I do with my Buffy the Vampire Slayer box set?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had a few more prompts to cover so I wrote this to get caught up on them. Those prompts are basically why i keep writing random nonsense lol. Guess which words were the prompts
> 
> Men, i read the aiball week rules and it says no gore but i kind of wanted to make a yandere-esque collections of one shots for it. I'll probably think of a way around it.


End file.
